Marie Kundo’s bestseller book has revolutionized how people unclutter. At KR, we’ve experienced unprecedented uncluttering, thanks to my family and our board. Let me take you behind the scenes this month to show you how. (Note that the underlined words are all links to expand the subject.)
My Family’s influence on KR’s uncluttering:
Though I rarely mention my family, they’ve profoundly helped unclutter KR & focus our work through…
The Gift of Limits: Ten years ago, I loved being part of the ground-breaking accomplishments of my former team at Epic Movement, Cru. But I was traveling well beyond the limits of my family and needed to resign. At the time, I saw our limitations as a threat. Today, I see our family limitations (homeschool, atypical teenager, and more) as a gift. It’s a paradox; our limitations have only served to open up more of what God wants for KR.
The Gift of Trials: In 2019, I reported a trial that severely disrupted our family. Yet God used that trial to propel Kingdom Rice unimaginably beyond me.
The Gift of Healing: A 3 week break to celebrate the holidays, take a day trip to the snow (shown here with friends), and begin EMDR therapy to process the distress from last summer are preparing me to lead Kingdom Rice from more of a emotionally healthy, beloved posture.
The Board’s influence on KR’s uncluttering:
Bringing focus: This colorful array of balloons is part of a spreadsheet tool created by the board to capture and prioritize all our partnerships as a function of alignment and strategy. The tool is bringing accountability, focus and deeper integration with our partners.
Saying “no” to everything else: This part has been a bit painful, especially since so much fruit was borne of these initiatives. These pictures following give a sample of what this saying "no" looks like:
(A) I received requests from different San Francisco historians to consider joining a team to help design a new museum exhibit to tell the story of Chinese settlement in my neighborhood. Even my local city supervisor brought it up to me; I had the honor of sharing the stage with her a couple years ago at a historical event to tell that story. A short summary of what I presented could be found here. But I’ve turned down all invitations. Speaking and writing on the subject was fun, but doing a project for a museum is too far out from our mission.
(B) I’ve also turned down requests to lead additional interfaith bike liturgies. Those were ground-breaking but too time-consuming as a long-term commitment!
(C) Fruit from those liturgies includes trust I now have with non-Christian faith leaders, like my friendship with the Zen Center’s former director. Thankful to God that initial suspicion of my Christian faith has been transcended :)
(D) I’ve loved preaching in a diversity of churches, like the Cantonese-speaking service shown here (yes, we have material in Chinese). Starting late 2019, I’ve cancelled or turned down most preaching invitations that don't tie into our mission (plus my absence on Sundays costs my family). Don't let that discourage you from asking though.
With 2019’s uncluttering efforts and your partnership, we are more focused than ever, to equip missionaries, seminarians, and churches to better embody Jesus’ humility and vulnerability and to equip them to be more culturally competent to engage people with Good News.Writing projects like the one I shared about last time is just one example.
Marie Kundo’s 
The Gift of Limits: Ten years ago, I loved being part of the ground-breaking accomplishments of my former team at Epic Movement, Cru. But I was traveling well beyond the limits of my family and needed to resign. At the time, I saw our limitations as a threat. Today, I see our family limitations (homeschool, atypical teenager, and more) as a 
